Don't Poke The Bear
by solochan2014
Summary: Two moments in Tonks's life where she gets to really admit that she got under Mad Eye's skin.


10th September 1993

"Are you ready for this?"

His gruff voice jolted Tonks into the real world as she stood with Moody outside the Ministry. He was puffing on a pipe, which he rolled around his lips looking out at dreary London, a world she had made her home over the last two years of training. Mad Eye was allowed to smoke indoors but he liked to use the time to check for people following him, and it had become a time for he and Tonks to catch up on study and training and sometimes share a few jokes about other aurors in the department.

Today, Tonks peeked her head in his direction at his words, her mentor had his arms folded as smoke puffed out of his pipe and she couldn't help but be reminded of what could only be described as a disgruntled kettle. Her hair was the same colour as her trainee auror robes – a stunning purple which she did enjoy wearing, but tomorrow she would get her official set of robes and she had been debating on her next matching colour.

She quipped a smile at her mentor. "Ready to finish my training with you? Mad Eye, you're not growing sentimental on me are you?"

She had pushed the right button clearly because his face now the colour of beetroot. "Answer the damned question Tonks."

So she did, puffing out her chest in attempt to match her statement. "I'm ready."

A huff from Mad Eye his rolling eye looking her up and down before turning back out towards the city. He shifted his arms so he could keep his digits warm in the cold. "You are a bad liar, kid."

Tonks frowned at him but didn't reply, she also crossed her arms, staring out into the rain, London always looked grim and tired even on it's better days and she had hoped for sunshine today. She wanted to at least pretend she was ready for tomorrow. It was Mad Eye's last day today and he wont be around to write red ink all over her notes or to teach her duelling tactics, even help her avoid social situations with the other trainee's when she was having to do midnight shift with him across the city.

If she wasn't ready to become an auror then she certainly wasn't ready for the old man to retire.

"Have you packed? Got your fishing rod all sorted and your Gaelic guide all set?"

The situation shifted, she saw the old man stuff more tobacco into his pipe before answering with a gruff slur in she learnt to just be his rough and tumble Scottish accent. It was his turn to suffer the torment of questioning and she relished it.

"I have nothing to pack."

"Bullshit," Tonks spat indignantly, "Your desk is covered in cards and gifts that are yours to take home." Her own card, a "Thank Merlin You're Retiring We Will Get Work Done Now" was sitting on his desk with a wrapped present, a hipflask with an Extension Charm so the flask was bigger on the inside which had bought out of her Outstanding Review bonus she'd received last month.

Mad Eye didn't answer but she suspected he had no intention of taking it with him – any of the gifts he had been given so she scowled.

"You better take home those gifts, some people wanted to get you something nice to say thank you."

"Some people would also want to permanently curse me and put me in St. Mungo's in the Incurable Wing."

"Right, right," Tonks said with a roll of her eyes. "Constant Vigilance and all that. Considering they are from aurors couldn't you at least trust that 80 percent of them will be to thank you, not to maim you?"

Mad Eye was finally finished with his pipe, looking out at the rain. "I'll open one of them, the rest I couldn't care."

Tonks smirked, "Well, you'd better pick mine, and just so you know you can't miss the spider scrawl handwriting all over the pretty wrapping."

"And if I don't take open it and take it with me?" he said as he opened the door for her to walk ahead of him back into the office.

"I'll bring it to you in your retirement and then I know where you live and you'll never be alone again."

Mad Eye never replied only snorted out of annoyance as they continued inside to get back to work. Despite the fact Mad Eye did only take one of his presents with him when he left, Tonks was delighted to note that her card and gift were the only ones missing from the office bin the following day.

* * *

6th August 1995

With the Advance Guard over and with Harry finally safe at the house Tonks finally felt she was ready to go home, but she caught Sirius and Remus speaking to themselves in the corner of the room and decided a final word before she left for work.

"Wotcher Sirius, what's the staring at me for?"

Sirius Black had been staring at his second cousin, even his friend Remus looked rather impressed as they stood together in the kitchen at 12 Grimmauld Place observing the young auror.

"I…No. It's nothing."

"Is it the hair?" Tonks found herself not looking at Remus straight away because she found that if she did, she would forget what she was doing and Sirius shook his head again laughing.

"No, your hair is perfectly fine." Remus assured her, "I think what my marauding friend is trying to say is that we've never seen anyone look so…friendly with Mad Eye. As a rule we only saw him a handful of times during the first war and we were ants under his boot."

The young auror raised an eyebrow at the pair, "I didn't do anything out of the ordinary…"

"He let you insult him-" Sirius said  
"-let you tease him without even a harsh word!" Remus added finally his own sense of awe came through and Tonks wondered just what Mad Eye had done to make these two middle aged men become fan boys. She made a mental note to ask him.

"I thought they warned you not to wake a sleeping dragon?" Sirius told her matter-of-factly and Tonks with even more surprise, started to laugh.

"Mad Eye isn't a sleeping dragon."

"Don't poke the bear then, you can't deny he is pretty terrifying, he certainly was when we were growing up, right Moony?"

Remus gave a small smile, nodding "He was a very...powerful force you didn't want to get in the way of when we worked with him in the First War."

The grin that Tonks was wearing simply grew. "Well, he was my mentor during training after school. I certainly don't see a dragon, or a bear, I see a man." She smirked at Remus unable to help herself, he had a very nice smile.

"Surely with your affliction in mind, you know it's not nice to judge a book by it's cover?" Tonks said with a bit of a raised eyebrow.

It was Remus Lupin's turn to look embarrassed; that boyish look started to disappear and the professor look she had seen him give Harry all night came back. "You know that's not what I meant..."

Tonks just rolled her eyes. "I know, but if you just…treat him like a man and he might let you tease him a little and you never know, he might tease you back and you'll be part of the family. He told me that Dumbledore makes it a mission to make him embarrassed atleast once during a conversation with him. Must have been a shock when it didn't work last year because he wasn't aware of the game."

After a lot of laughing and smiles all round she gave them a farewell wave and then the young auror left the room. As she did leave Remus cocked his head gently to watch her leave whilst Sirius stood there in his own musings.

"Treat him like a man?" Sirius said with a smirk, the eighteen-year-old order member seemed to shine through that gaunt face that Sirius now unfortunately wore. "She does mean Mad Eye right? The man who almost threw James into a muggle dustbin after that one time in Gloucester Road?"

"Prongs said his eyes was trying to undress him multiple times on a stealth mission." Remus said to Sirius but unable to help the marauderish smirk that appeared on his own face. "I think I would also be fuming if I was trying to be quiet."

Sirius barked a laugh before leaving Remus to himself. Now alone the werewolf mused on Tonks and her relationship with her mentor. What had seen tonight was something at Privet Drive he had never had the guts to do at her age, and he didn't think even Sirius would have done.

He finally had to admit to himself that Nymphadora Tonks was starting to impress him, as he had clearly impressed Mad Eye enough to let her unashamedly tease him in front of his peers.

"Better him than me," Remus thought, wondering what it must have been like to have a young Tonks at his heel and whether he wanted to admit it or not, he found himself hoping he would have the chance to spend more missions with her so he can become her next teasing victim.


End file.
